Convince & Convert

MAY 27, 2011

Social media is growing up fast. No longer a niche plaything of the digerati, social media is firmly entrenched as a societal game changer of historical importance. For many, social media and social networking are so ubiquitous and pervasive that we presume we have it figured out, that we have a finger firmly on the pulse. But we don’t. Data about how social media really works, who uses it and how, continues to surprise.

Social Media 166

Social Media Media Social Networks Ideal Customer Profiles 166

ViewPoint

MAY 23, 2011

Today we're honored to have guest blogger Ruth Stevens share her thoughts on database marketing. Ruth is Founder of eMarketing Strategy , a consulting practice that assists companies build their customer acquisition and retention strategies. Business marketers are always suspicious of the data they are getting from list and data companies, whether its prospecting lists or data elements purchased for “append,” to fill in gaps.

Resources 168

Resources B to B Work Management Marketing Management 168

Savanta

MAY 18, 2011

Every month David Willan interviews leading experts from the world of marketing and B2B. This month David spoke with Jaakko Alanko, one of the true doyens of B2B communications. Jaakko shares insights learned during 40 years in marketing, discusses the B2B brands he admires and shares his vision for the future of B2B marketing: the era of the enterprise brand.

Enterprise Management 152

Enterprise Management Consulting Work Management Marketing Management 152

Customer Experience Matrix

MAY 15, 2011

I was scheduled to attend the DIGIDAY:TARGET conference on May 4 but wasn't able to be there. (Download the conference agenda and presentations.) Happily, my colleague and big-data guru Matt Doering was able to take my place. Here are Matt's thoughts: Yogi Berra meets data in the online world. At the recent Digiday:Target conference (Park Central Hotel, NYC, May 4 2011) a moderator posed the question “Which is better: More Data, Consistent Data or Data Expertise”.

Data Hygiene 139

Data Hygiene Stats Conference Work Management 139

Speaker: Neal Boornazian, President and Nancy Harhut, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer - HBT Marketing

Direct mail has consistently remained a powerful tool in the marketer's arsenal, but in an age of digital dominance, its effectiveness hinges on the strategic integration of behavioral science. 💡 When you incorporate powerful behavioral science principles into your direct mail marketing strategies, you can prompt the hardwired decision-making shortcuts your audience relies on — and that automatically unlocks new avenues for engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.

Response Rate

WriteSpark

MAY 4, 2011

You may be perfectly happy with your current in-house and freelance resources for writing. If so, great! But not all writers can write everything well, in spite of their optimistic willingness to try. And it's always good to know another copy writer is available, just for those times when: Your current writers are too busy. A new product launch needs several writers working in parallel.

Copywriting 131

Copywriting Ideal Customer Profiles Verticals Linkedin 131

Convince & Convert

MAY 23, 2011

Facebook for business is email newsletters 2.0. You’re trying to accomplish the same things on Facebook that you are in email, aren’t you? You want to keep your business top-of-mind among people that are already aware of you, and encourage those people to buy again and tell their friends. The number of Facebook “likes&# you’ve accumulated is akin to your email list.

Facebook 151

Facebook Business Impressions Click Rate 151

ViewPoint

MAY 12, 2011

How many times have you lost a piece of business because the buyer didn’t know who you were? Probably more often than you’d like. Few companies have the sales and marketing resources to adequately cover their markets. It’s logical that if only a fraction of your target market is contacted, only a fraction of the deals are going to you.

Advertising Channels 152

Advertising Channels Buying Cycle Vendors Case Study 152

Marketing Insider Group

MAY 31, 2011

I’ve recently spoken to a number of small business owners about how to get started in marketing. Maybe you have hired a freelancer to setup your website or asked anintern to build a Facebook page. But if you’re wondering where to focus your efforts to get marketing results for your small business such as leads or brand awareness, then this article might be for you.

Small Business Marketing 168

Small Business Marketing Paid Search Agency Planning Business 168

Customer Experience Matrix

MAY 4, 2011

Am I the only one who missed the April 1 announcement of a strategic alliance between Salesforce.com and Intuit ? Given our industry's endless nattering about whether Salesforce.com will move into marketing automation, this should have attracted more attention (or, at least, enough attention that I would hear about it sooner than I did). In case you too missed the news, it comes down to this: Salesforce.com will be available on Intuit’s App Center and be deployed so that the Intuit and Salesforc

Salesforce.com 152

Salesforce.com Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Small Business Marketing 152

Speaker: Carlos Hidalgo, Co-Founder & CEO of Digital Exhaust, Author, International Keynote & TEDx Speaker

Recent research shows that only 50% of B2B organizations state that they have good alignment between their marketing and sales teams. This lack of alignment tremendously impacts the ability to meet business goals, and is a limiting factor for building and maintaining customer relationships. While many B2B organizations continue to struggle with aligning their marketing and sales teams, they can take practical steps to unify both teams and simplify their overall approach.

B2B Sales

The Point

MAY 31, 2011

A client asks: “On every registration form, we give prospects the option to request contact from a sales rep. Is that even worthwhile when we’re going to call everyone anyway? If it is a good idea, what should the verbiage be? Currently the form reads: [Yes/No radio button] I would like to have a sales representative contact me.”. My response: “Yes, it’s a good idea (I’ll explain why) but you need to revamp the language significantly.

Contacts 130

Contacts Lead Qualification Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 130

Webbiquity

MAY 31, 2011

According to a recent presentation from HubSpot , “selling is 10X easier once you have established trust.&# Other than having something of value to offer, trust is the most essential element for business success. It removes psychological barriers and objections to buying, and makes people want to do business with you because they are comfortable.

Trust Marketing 192

Trust Marketing Business Transparency Social Networks 192

Convince & Convert

MAY 31, 2011

Can social media be measured? If course it can. But it’s not always easy. For a full and very specific account of how to measure social media in your company, pick up a copy of The Now Revolution , or Social Media ROI (by Olivier Blanchard). However, here are the basics to consider, drawn from my presentation “How to Hug Your Calculator&# last week at Social Media Success Summit 2011.

Social Media 149

Social Media Process Media Correlation 149

ViewPoint

MAY 5, 2011

In a recent article on Revenue Performance Management in Marketing Automation Software Guide, Lauren Carlson does a nice job of providing a context for the RPM discussion by differentiating it from marketing automation, reviewing the factors motivating its advancement, and raising good questions. The core idea of RPM naturally brings to mind other approaches like CRM and ERP, both bringing strategies, applications, and integration together into unified wholes.

Marketing Management 160

Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Eloqua Demand Generation Agencies 160

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Webinar Metrics

Writing on the Web

MAY 30, 2011

Back in the U.S., it’s Memorial Day when Americans honor our soldiers who died in service. My father, Marion Rae Wilkerson, was a 25-year Navy veteran, and while he didn’t die in service, I always remember him on this weekend. He was on a ship in the Pacific during World War II that was blown in half by the Japanese. He was on the half that was able to save many of their sailors.

Digg 136

Digg Buzz Blogger Google 136

NuSpark Consulting

MAY 28, 2011

Dear Bob, It’s Paul in Marketing. How are you? I haven’t seen you much around the office lately; I know we’re both crazy busy people. You’re busy training all those sales guys and going to conferences. I’ve been speaking to some of the folks in sales recently, and they seem to be in better spirits lately since we implemented our new initiatives. I’m sure you remember the old days.

Email Marketing 141

Email Marketing Work Management Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring 141

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 27, 2011

The research about mobile usage does not do mobile justice. Sure, 82% of executives have a smartphone. 49% of C-level executives search on a mobile device. Yes, mobile is pervasive, but numbers alone don’t capture how much mobile can change marketing. Many B2B marketers are catching on slowly, distracted by low mobile usage on corporate websites or a limited understanding of how mobile marketing and mobile accessibility contributes to goals.

Mobile Marketing 124

Mobile Marketing Blogger B2B Marketing Social Networks 124

The Effective Marketer

MAY 26, 2011

As marketers is our job to create meaningful content that will help influence sales. You will eventually find yourself not only writing copy for an eBook, whitepaper or email campaign but also having to create and deliver presentations. That’s where you can shine. Let me explain. The Suckiness Factor. Most presentations suck. That’s a fact of life and I think that there are people with genetic predisposition to put together boring presentations.

Conference 115

Conference Email Campaigns Webinar Metrics Google 115

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Content

Convince & Convert

MAY 6, 2011

Last week, Facebook celebrated the one year anniversary of the “like&# button, the popular successor to the “fan&# button, and the tip of the spear of its Open Graph gambit that it hopes will allow it to become the plumbing of the Web. By any measure, the “like&# button is a smash hit. It is served billions of times each day, and silently connects us to a vast array of our preferences, providing ongoing cues about who we are and with whom and what we choose to interact.

Facebook 149

Facebook Advertising Mediums Relevance Promotion 149

Marketing Insider Group

MAY 26, 2011

Ask sales people what they think is wrong with marketing and they will say the biggest mistake marketers make is too much of a focus on marketing activities instead of results. I have explained already that I think the biggest B2B marketing mistake is putting your company and not your customers first. And focusing on internal activities and fighting the latest internal fires instead of solving customer problems is the other side of the same coin.

Activities 173

Activities De-duplication Planning Telemarketing 173

Webbiquity

MAY 26, 2011

I was writing some web copy for a client the other day when I accidentally typed “oursourcing&# instead of “outsourcing.&# Now, being that I don’t exactly type with the fluid grace of a classical pianist, I make typos all the time. But this one caught my eye. It seemed like it should be a word. I envision it meaning something beyond doing it yourself, but less formal than outsourcing and less chaotic than crowd-sourcing.

Twitter 145

Twitter Social Media Work Management Social Marketing 145

NuSpark Consulting

MAY 28, 2011

Dear Bob, It’s Paul in Marketing. How are you? I haven’t seen you much around the office lately; I know we’re both crazy busy people. You’re busy training all those sales guys and going to conferences. I’ve been speaking to some of the folks in sales recently, and they seem to be in better spirits lately since we implemented our new initiatives. I’m sure you remember the old days.

Email Marketing 141

Email Marketing Work Management Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 141

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Deliverability

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 25, 2011

The Changes to Email Marketing will Not End with Facebook. Jay Baer proposed in a blog post on Monday that Facebook for Business is Email Marketing 2.0 , and that email can then be used to value marketing efforts on Facebook. It is an excellent approach, and I think most comments missed the point. Facebook marketing and email marketing are both about developing an audience that allows you to engage over time.

Facebook 108

Facebook Email Marketing Marketing Proposals Paid Search Agency 108

Buzz Marketing for Technology

MAY 25, 2011

I really don’t get it. I recently saw an article from MarketingSherpa that said 62% of CMO’s believe that social media marketing will pay off … eventually! That’s 6 out of every 10 CMOs. All I can say is what are you reading and where are you hiding yourself? In my mind this is the reason why the CMO tenure is a tender 22 months because they aren’t able to find a way to deliver meaningful results.

Social Media 192

Social Media ROI Media CMO 192

Convince & Convert

MAY 2, 2011

Join Mark W. Schaefer (whose {GROW} blog is a must-read ) and me for a fireside chat about social media centralization vs. decentralization. We really want your feedback and ideas on these important issues, so sound off in the comments please. Is social media too complex for one person to handle? Are companies better off having one or a few social media practitioners, or many?

Social Media 135

Social Media Media Public Relations Consulting 135

Writing on the Web

MAY 25, 2011

Three Keys to Blogging When you Are Happy. A guest post by Erica Nelson. You know how your smile is written all over your face? Your emotions are imbedded in your words and how you write. Just like when you walk into a restaurant, the waiter immediately communicates without saying one word what your service experience might be like, the opening phrases of your blog or website are going to speak volumes about how you are thinking and what you are feeling.

Digg 154

Digg Blast Campaigns Buzz Blogger 154

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B2B Marketing

ANNUITAS

MAY 24, 2011

We recently had the opportunity to connect with Jon Miller, Vice President of Marketing and Co-Founder of Marketo. Jon leads strategy and execution for all aspects of Marketo’s hyper-efficient demand center (powered by Marketo’s solution, of course). In Marketo’s popular blog, Modern B2B Marketing , he explores everything from lead nurturing and social media to marketing ROI and revenue performance management (RPM).

Marketo 166

Marketo Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management 166

Marketing Craftmanship

MAY 23, 2011

Too Big To Fail? Thanks to the well-intentioned corporate activist group, “ Corporate Accountability International ,” and its egg & ham-fisted attempt last week to coerce Ronald McDonald into retirement, McDonald’s Corporation was handed an unsolicited opportunity (and loads of free air time) to reposition the company as a protector of first amendment rights, and to re-launch its aging spokesclown as “the ambassador of good food.”.

Public Relations 109

Public Relations PR Intent Organic Leads 109

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 24, 2011

We don’t want to be sold. When we expect a sales pitch, we put our defenses up, or just turn away. We always need solutions to challenges. Lower cost, reduce risk, increase visibility. Your solution does that, right? The problem is, everyone else’s does too. Claims like these are so broadly used in marketing they have become cliche and have lost nearly all meaning.

Marketing Proposals 108

Marketing Proposals Demand Generation Opinions Distribution 108